Drop and block vs. Active hands

FatLemon · Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2011 1:37 am Post subject: Drop and block vs. Active hands

Hello everyone, today I'd like to talk about why games have been trending towards higher scores as of late.

There once was a time when goaltending was easy... Well, easier than it is now. Players didn't have a lot of space to shoot, so they would just throw the puck on net, usually on or under a foot off the ice. Therefore, goalies adapted, and lowered their gloves just above their pads, so that they could catch rare one or two that came higher than that, and therefore just over the pad, under the arm. Games would rarely see more than 4 or 5 goals total.

In the 2007-2008 season, 10 out of 60 goalies that played more than 10 games had a GAA of over 2.99. This season 8 out of 30 do. That means 10% more goalies have a GAA higher than 2.99 this year than last year. In fact, just last week, Toronto and Tampa Bay mustered up 8 goals, as well as Edmonton and Nashville.

Here's why. The technique I talked about earlier has come to be known as the "drop-and-block" technique. The mantra goes; plug your holes and hope it hits you.

Here's a pretty good example from Roberto Luongo (Who has a GAA of 2.97 through 13 games played this season).

NOW: want to know why Nikoli Khabibulin and Tim Thomas have GAAs under 2.00? Because they see that players in this evolving NHL have more time to shoot off the rush and from outside the slot chances. This in mind, these goaltenders have learned to abandon the drop and block, and "re-activate" their hands.

Here you'll see Khabibulin standing tall with his blocker facing the shooter, and glove hand a good half a foot above his pad.

When your blocker is facing the shooter, and glove ready, they are more able to reach up and pick out shots that come in the higher region of the net. One other thing you'll notice is that Khabibulins gloves are in a more forward position in relation to the rest of his body, as well as facing square to the shooter. Both his blocker and glove are almost directly above his pads. In the Luo photo, his blocker is by his hip and his glove is behind his pad.

In conclusion, lowering the gloves and squeezing your elbows when in the butterfly seems to be a recipe for failure as of late. While paying attention to the hands, pushing them forward, making sure they're square and putting the stick right in front of the five hole seems to be the way to go in this evolving NHL.

NOTE: The drop and block still is acceptable to use at times. For instance in close and through a screen, the puck doesn't have a lot of space to gain altitude, and the shooter doesn't have a lot of time to set up the wrister. This would be a good time to drop and block.

All pictures from GoalMag.

/FatLemon\

reflex · Posted: Thu Dec 15, 2011 9:08 pm Post subject:

gotta disagree a tad on your theorys of what you have listed... goalies arent just seeing shots, dropping and hoping for the best out there. they are seeing shots and moving accordingly. even when playing active hands usuallythey drop and still attempt a hand related save which is still kinda sloppy if you ask me...